How to Check if an Element is Present with Selenium WebDriver in Java

How can I check if an element is present using Selenium WebDriver in Java without causing an exception?

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
By locator = By.id("elementId");
if(isElementPresent(driver, locator)){ 
    System.out.println("Element is present");
} else {
    System.out.println("Element is not present");
}

In Selenium WebDriver, we often need to determine whether a specific web element is present without triggering an exception. Instead of using methods that throw exceptions upon failure, we can implement a custom method that returns a boolean, indicating the presence of the element.

public boolean isElementPresent(WebDriver driver, By locator) {
    try {
        driver.findElement(locator);
        return true;
    } catch (NoSuchElementException e) {
        return false;
    }
}

Causes

• Attempting to find an element that does not exist will throw a NoSuchElementException in WebDriver, which can interfere with test execution.
• Using basic findElement() methods can lead to unhandled exceptions.

Solutions

• Implement a method that checks for presence without throwing exceptions by using a try-catch block.
• Utilize WebDriver wait functionalities to create a robust check that waits for a certain duration before concluding the absence of the element.

Mistake: Using findElement() directly without exception handling.

Solution: Implement a custom method that returns a boolean to safely check for element presence.

Mistake: Not accounting for dynamic page content that loads elements gradually.

Solution: Utilize WebDriver wait mechanisms such as WebDriverWait to handle element loading times.